Freedom of Information (FOI) in Keepabl

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve introduced intake and management of Freedom of Information requests into our global Rights module.

As always, we’ve been collaborating with our ‘Roadmappers’ – customers, consultants and other practitioners –  to bring this exciting new feature that adds instant value to our users’ experience. 

And, as always, our Freedom of Information requests are fully integrated into the whole Keepabl solution and, if you’re an existing customer, this feature is included in your subscription at no extra cost!

What Are Freedom of Information requests?

Freedom of Information requests are requests made by individuals for information held by public bodies and certain publicly-funded bodies, enabled by national laws usually called Freedom of Information, Access to Administrative Documents or similar.

As the UK ICO notes in its guidance:

Public authorities spend money collected from taxpayers, and make decisions that can significantly affect many people’s lives. Access to information helps the public make public authorities accountable for their actions and allows public debate to be better informed and more productive.

Most countries now have a law on freedom of information, or an administrative access right to such information:

• In the UK, they’re often abbreviated to FOI or FOIA requests after our law. 
• In France, reflecting the administrative nature of the right, rather than Privacy, the access right is called accès aux documents administratifs.
• And Italy has both simple civic access rights (accesso civico semplice) and general civic access rights (accesso civico generalizzato, which are also called FOIA). 

Freedom of Information isn’t just FOIA

It’s not just FOIA requests. As the UK Government’s guidance notes, alongside Freedom of Information requests in the UK, you can also ask for environmental information. This is also the case in many countries around the world.

This is why we’ve chosen to use ‘Freedom of Information’ as a more general term rather than the more particular FOIA, to be able to cover any access to information under the laws giving the administrative right of access to information due to public funding.

Freedom of Information isn’t Privacy

Back to the ICO, which notes that:

[FOIA] does not give people access to their own personal data (information about themselves) such as their health records or credit reference file. If a member of the public wants to see information that a public authority holds about them, they should make a data protection subject access request.

FOI requests are an administrative right, not a Privacy Right, and they’re under a separate legal regime. However, in practice:

• they’re very closely aligned, 
• the same team very often deals with both, and 
• the process (review, acceptance, exceptions and exemptions, fees, and fulfilment) are very similar.

That’s why we’ve included Freedom of Information in the Keepabl Rights module as another Right to manage.

Does Freedom of Information apply to you?

In summary, as the ICO notes, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ‘provides public access to information held by public authorities’ and:

Public authorities include government departments, local authorities, the NHS, state schools and police forces. However, the Act does not necessarily cover every organisation that receives public money. For example, it does not cover some charities that receive grants and certain private sector organisations that perform public functions.

Most countries’ Freedom of Information laws have a similar scope.

Your Global Solution

Just as you can manage Privacy Rights from around the world in Keepabl, so you can manage Freedom of Information requests wherever you are in the world.

With Keepabl’s human-translated languages, you can manage Freedom of Information in your native English, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

If you’re already a valued Keepabl customer, then Freedom of Information requests are already live in your system, at no additional cost.

Automate with tailored Forms

If you handle Freedom of Information requests, why not make a tailored Form to automate the intake of such requests with instant alerts to the team:

Still struggling in spreadsheets?

Why not take a demo and free-trial of our award winning Privacy Management SaaS to see how easy moving Rights and Freedom of Information requests can be!